Expression commonly used in the Australian military, meaning any event or organised activity that has degenerated into a poor joke, a waste of time or an outright disaster.

Alludes to a pop/rock concert, which usually preceded by unrealistic expectations and hype, turns out to be something less than expected due to technical faults, poor performance by the star act or just bad luck. Anything built up out of proportion to the ability to deliver, coupled with the event turning into a catastrophe is, or can be described as, a “rock show”.

“That last exercise we had with the Yanks at Shoalwater bay was disaster. Not only did it piss down rain all week, they send us the wrong radio frequencies, the A- vehicles never arrived and all our rations ended up stuck in traffic back at Rocky. The entire SNAFU was worse than a cluster, it was a real rock show!”